Comments 390

Re: Xbox's 'Everywhere' Future Outlined in Company Memo from Phil Spencer

GeeEssEff

@__jamiie Potentially but we don’t know the profit margin for ABK as a whole. The only info I can find was in Q2 2023 they generated 2.2billion revenue. Even if their profit margin is as high as 15% that’s only 1billion a year profit. Again cash revenue generated is not the same as profit. Revenue basically just tells us how much a company has generated in sales in a given time period and doesn’t factor in dev costs, salaries, keeping the office lights switched on, materials, distribution, ongoing support etc. Microsoft are big enough to play the long game with these acquisitions and absorb the immediate loss but realistically it could take 15, 20 maybe 30 years to pay off ABK based on the profit of the Xbox business alone unless they make some drastic changes….hence them trying out multi platform releases.

Edit: found this https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/delisted/ATVI/Activision%20Blizzard/gross-profit
Which suggests that ABK makes around 5-6 billion a year gross profit so I was well out on my estimations. But still best case scenario if they use ABK profit to fund the purchase it will take about 10 years to pay off

Re: Xbox's 'Everywhere' Future Outlined in Company Memo from Phil Spencer

GeeEssEff

@__jamiie Xbox is almost certainly profitable but it’s worth remembering that Revenue does not equal profit. Phil Spencer has previously stated that Xbox operates at a single digit profit margin so even if they make 12bil a year revenue (based on 4bil a quarter) the max profit they make is around 1billion assuming that single digit is 9% but it could be as low as 120mil at 1%. Either way it’s going to take a hell of a lot of good quarters to claw back what they have spent on Bethesda and ABK.

Edit: got the most basic maths wrong. 4bil rev a quarter would be 16bil a year resulting in 1.4bil profit at 9% and 160mil at 1%….long day

Re: Sony May Have Made the Right Call Not Copying Xbox Game Pass with PS Plus

GeeEssEff

@Godot25 I think the monthly prices are higher to tempt people into yearly subscriptions which are much better value, particularly if you can get them on a deal. I’m in the UK and I have picked up premium for around £80 a year before in a deal and for what is essentially £6 a month it’s a good deal.

The thing with PS plus extra and premium is I don’t think you’re going to get massive amounts of value if you buy a lot of games on release or you are subbed to gamepass as well. For people new to PS or those who are happy being a few years behind on releases it’s incredible value even at the monthly fee.

Re: Sony May Have Made the Right Call Not Copying Xbox Game Pass with PS Plus

GeeEssEff

@Godot25 Xbox and PlayStation are direct competition….MS and Sony are not. Gamepass has the backing of a 3 trillion dollar company that can afford to add day one games and make deals with more third parties. Sony is worth about 118bil which means you could fit roughly 25 Sonys Into MS and have some change (when you actually look at these numbers written down the difference is staggering….a trillion is equal to one thousand billion and has 13 digits!!).

Yes, as a consumer I would love every single 1st party game to arrive on PS Plus day one. As a rational human being I understand that this isn’t possible. If Sony were making promises they weren’t keeping with regards to PS plus I would be annoyed but they have been pretty honest about what they can and can’t do with the service from the get go. So simply put if people don’t think they are getting good value from either Plus or Gamepass they simply shouldn’t subscribe but we can’t expect the exact same service from two vastly different companies.

Re: Xbox Is Bringing Four Exclusives to PS5, But It Won't Say Which

GeeEssEff

@Stickleman I just want to address the “everyone has copied it” comment about gamepass. Interestingly it’s MS who have been looking at other people’s homework in the run up to modern day gamepass. Sony introduced PS Plus in 2010 giving away 3 games a month which you could access for the duration of your subscription. MS followed suit in 2013 with games with gold which was lumped in with Xbox live. At this time (and happy to be corrected if I’m wrong) Sony still offered free network play so the PS plus subscription was an entirely optional extra to get a few games a month. Then Sony introduced PS Now in 2014, a sub service where you could access a library of games with new ones added each month. MS released Gamepass in 2017 as a response to this. The copying has very much been one sided but Gamepass has become more famous because of the day one releases and a back catalogue of all first party titles. I have no idea about the financials but I absolutely do know it is not some amazing original idea that MS came up with.

Re: PS5 Is Entering the 'Latter Half of Its Life Cycle', Says Sony

GeeEssEff

@djlard maybe for you but I’m very happy with my day one PS5. Anyone who expected Sony to just drop the PS4 the moment the 5 was released was being unrealistic. And some of my favourite games from this gen were released on both….GOW Ragnorok, Elden Ring, Gran turismo 7, Horizon FW (which I personally think is the best looking game I have ever played, it definitely didn’t feel like it was being held back). If you sit there being bitter because PS4 players are playing the same games as you then you are not going to enjoy the console. Why not just play the incredible games instead of panicking about whether the developer has squeezed every last teraflop out of the development process?

Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Helldivers 2?

GeeEssEff

@RoomWithaMoose it’s one of those that plays much better than it looks. It also helps that it’s as fun when it’s going badly as when it’s going well. With regards to new stuff the way it uses community objectives is pretty unique, I’m sure it’s been done before but probably not on this scale. I dunno what to tell you, it’s just pure dumb, hilarious fun!

Re: Tekken 8 Exceeds Bandai Namco's Expectations, Tops 2 Million Sales

GeeEssEff

@MattBoothDev I love the term “fisher price scheme” 😂

I have been predominantly playing online ranked (but getting destroyed) and it’s much rarer on Tekken to be matched with someone using the simplified controls then it was on SF6 for people using modern controls. Also the simplified control scheme on Tekken basically gives you a very very limited set of moves you can use so you might get button mashed for a round or two but once you realise the few patterns they can actually pull off it’s super easy to counter. I’d say in about 60 ranked matches I have played less, than 5 opponents have been using simple controls.

Re: 13 More Games Coming to PS Plus Extra, Premium This Month

GeeEssEff

@KundaliniRising333 The max price of PS premium is £13.50 a month. The top 6 games alone on that list currently retail for around £70 combined on Amazon and at least 4 of them are actually pretty good games. We have also got foamstars, steelrising and rollerdrome to keep for the duration of the subscription. And we get online play (yeh I wish it was free like pc but we are unfortunately not the master race). I will absolutely accept when people say they are crap additions or they are disappointed that they have already played the games but I cannot understand when people think this is an overpriced service. I spent nearly the full price of a monthly sub on my lunch today. What are you expecting PlayStation to give you for £13.50?!?

Re: Helldivers 2 (PS5) - The Best Co-Op Shooter on PS5

GeeEssEff

@UltimateOtaku91 on Sunday I found that I wasn’t getting XP and rewards when I was joining other peoples sessions but I was getting them when I was hosting so since then I have mainly been hosting lobbies with randos….just don’t tell the randos they won’t be getting anything 😉

Overall though, bugs aside, I am really enjoying the game. It’s been one of those rare ones I find myself thinking about while waiting for the hours to tick by at work so I can hop back in and play it. Can’t wait to spread more democracy!

Re: Games Should 'Earn the Right to Monetise', Says Helldivers 2 Director

GeeEssEff

@Kidfunkadelic83 It definitely doesn’t shy away from its starship troopers influence. I think it is a bit of a time sink overall so if you have got other stuff going on it’s probs best to wait….i also don’t have time but i bought into the hype. While it’s nice you can unlock everything without microtransactions I would be lying if I said progress was particularly fast but it’s definitely designed with the view that people will still be playing it in years to come. It’s live service through and through but at the same time doesn’t feel predatory.

Re: Games Should 'Earn the Right to Monetise', Says Helldivers 2 Director

GeeEssEff

@Kidfunkadelic83 how it works in practice is actually quite hard to describe but basically there are different levels with different objectives on each planet. Some levels are simply protect an area from waves of enemies but most of them have a bit more stuff to do like facilitating a missile launch, blowing up a massive bug base, turning on a reactor etc. All levels have a time limit and the larger ones (usually 40 minutes) also have side objectives and little points of interest that give you more xp for completing but if you stick to the main objectives you could whizz through most of them in 10-15 mins.

On top of this everyone who plays the game is working towards global objectives so you can see the percentage of completion ticking up. There was a big celebration on Reddit over the weekend when we all finally liberated the first planet 😂….its actually quite cool.

Sorry for the brain dump but hope it helps!

Re: Helldivers 2 Is 'Blowing Through Estimates', Around 1 Million Sales In Less Than a Week

GeeEssEff

It’s a really really fun game. It’s the first time in about 15 years where a game has compelled me to speak to randos via game chat. I ended up playing with 3 brilliant American chaps for a couple of hours on Saturday. Even when it’s going wrong it’s hilarious. I have never been so delighted to be team killed because it’s funny watching your character rag doll for miles after taking an air strike to the head and the reinforcement numbers are well balanced.

Once Arrowhead smooth out the server and matchmaking issues we will have a real gem on our hands. It has certainly smashed all my expectations (which admittedly were pretty low)

Re: Poll: How Do You Feel About All of the Xbox Multiplatform Rumours?

GeeEssEff

I am extremely opposed to MS buying up massive amounts of multi platform IPs and locking them out of PlayStation so getting Bethesda and future ABK titles on PS would be music to my ears. I don’t however want to see MS bow out of the console race and I also think it would be weird seeing their flagship titles like Forza, Gears and Halo on a different console. That said I think most of these rumours have been blown way out of proportion and in reality next weeks announcement is going to be a whole lot of nothing and very little will change.

Re: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Named Series' Fastest-Selling Game, Already at One Million Units

GeeEssEff

@Kidfunkadelic83 You can get some fairly cheap 2 star gear in the shops roughly near where you started and then if you have some iron you can upgrade those pretty effectively at the workshop (I cheated and googled where to get the gear I wanted). They will definitely get you through the 2 star bit you are at and then you will unlock the labyrinth shortly after which someone else has mentioned as a good way to get cash and level up.

It is a bit stingy with the money early doors but I have found wandering around and doing the general activities as you go gives you some half decent gear. What’s her face at revolve gives you some pretty good stuff every time you hit an aloha links milestone which is pretty often.

Re: Baldur's Gate 3 on PS Plus Is Probably Never Going to Happen

GeeEssEff

@jedinite I’m not lying because I’m not talking solely about that article. I’m talking about the months of articles surrounding Baldurs Gate 3 where I have seen some form of that comment or very similar, many times. Same thing happens with plenty of other games particularly in the Indie and AA space the moment something is announced that’s not on GP. Can you honestly tell me you haven’t seen an increasing number of these comments over the last 2 years or am I going to have to ask you why you’re lying?

Re: Baldur's Gate 3 on PS Plus Is Probably Never Going to Happen

GeeEssEff

@DennisReynolds The amount of “I will never play this game unless it’s on gamepass” comments on Pure Xbox is exactly the reason they are going to see more and more games skipping the platform. They already have the smallest user base of any console and on top of that the players aren’t willing to actually buy games and support developers. But the moment a game skips Xbox everyone is up in arms…it’s genuinely infuriating to see.

Re: Street Fighter 6 Smashes Another Sales Milestone, Over Three Million Copies Sold

GeeEssEff

Really well deserved. I’ve said it here countless times before but what SF6 does better than any other fighting game I have played is constantly push you to be better and gives you almost of the tools you need to do so. On top of that it’s got a huge amount of single player content, a varied character roster, an amazing community and beautiful graphics.

If I could make one change I would add the feature from recent MK/injustice games where you can select the inputs for basic combos and moves to appear during fights (although not in ranked). My memory is not what it used to be and this feature really helps when learning a new character. Oh and some more (non paid) customisation options for base characters wouldn’t go amiss but for pure gameplay it’s easily jumped it’s way to my GOAT.

Re: Hope as Elden Ring Steam DLC Backend Is Updated for First Time Since Launch

GeeEssEff

@Darth_Stofi FromSoftware has always released really solid DLC for the souls games. They are usually dense levels with a fair amount of interesting stuff to do and collect. With Elden Ring being the pure masterpiece that it is, people are excited for a reason to dive back in and given From’s track record you could comfortably put money on it being a high quality expansion.

Re: 14 Games on the Way to PS Plus Extra, Premium Next Week

GeeEssEff

I’ve been wanting to give Session and Hardspace a go. I already own Resi 2, shadow tactics, Just Cause 3 and Tiny Tina but I try to look at these monthly games based on the quality of the additions as opposed to whether I personally own them or not and I think its a pretty solid month.

If you absolutely want the most bang for your buck with PS+ the key is to never buy games and then you will almost never be disappointed. If Sony just adds games no one buys every month then it will just be pure crap quality and everyone would still complain.

Re: Apex Legends Fans Are Absolutely Irate with the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Event's Pricing

GeeEssEff

@PaperAlien I support this message. I got killed by Nicki Minaj in CoD the other day….just why?

To be fair though no one is being forced to part with their money for these silly cosmetics and the cynical perspective is that the gaming industry is there to make money just like any other industry. We all like to think games are being developed purely for the love of the gaming and in some indie cases this might be correct but for the most part a game was created with the sole purpose of making a rich company richer.